Wetas
New Zealand's
Insect
Giants
Text and photographs by
MARK W. MOFFETT
HANDFUL of legs and spines, a giant weta
from Little Barrier Island devours a car
rot. About as big as a house mouse, this
Deinacridaheteracanthaweighs in at two-thirds
of her species' record 2.5 ounces. The largest of
the ten species of giant wetas beat most of the
world's biggest insects in weight and bulk, but
not all the so-called giants reach this size.
New Zealanders call all their wingless, cricket
like insects wetas. Little changed in 200 million
years, they are among New Zealand's oldest
native life-forms.
Smaller than some of the giants but still
imposing, an alarmed tree weta-Hemideina
crassidens- kicks at entomologist Simon Pollard
in a primal rain forest on South Island.
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